Speaking at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council,
Power said it is clear Russia has armed, equipped, and "now
joined" the rebels in southeastern regions of Ukraine, where
fighting has raged for months. In sharp rhetoric that went
further than statements from the White House and State
Department, Power accused Russia of engaging in a campaign of
"outright lies."

"They have manipulated,
obfuscated, and outright lied," Power said, after opening the
meeting by noting, exasperatedly, that it was the 24th Security
Council meeting on Ukraine.

"The mask is coming off," she
added.

Power said Russia's "blatant
disregard" for international order would be a threat to to
international peace and security. She referenced the 12 countries
that border Russia to urge action.

"How can we tell those countries that border Russia that
their peace and sovereignty is guaranteed if we do not make our
message heard on Ukraine?" Power said.

"Why should they believe it will be different
if tomorrow, President Putin decides to start supporting
armed separatists and allowing soldiers 'on vacation' to fight in
their countries? And, just as important, what message are we
sending to other countries with similarly alarming ambitions
around the world, when we let Russia violate these rules without
sufficient consequences? In the face of this threat, the cost of
inaction is unacceptable."

NSDC of Ukraine

The emergency meeting of the security council was called
after Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Russian
troops were fighting on the side of separatists in Ukraine and
were advancing in the southeast region of the country. NATO
subsequently
echoed his allegations.

Ukraine's defense council said Russian troops are leading a
separatist counteroffensive in the east, bringing in tanks and
using artillery from inside Ukrainian territory.

A Russian-backed rebel leader said that at
least 3,000 to 4,000 Russian troops were fighting inside Ukraine.

"Current servicemen are also fighting in our ranks, as they came
to us to struggle for our freedom instead of their vacations,"
prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic
(DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko told Russian media. "This is
characteristic only for Russians."

Here are Power's full
remarks:

Mr. President, representatives on this Council, this is our
24th session to try to rein in Russia’s
aggressive acts in Ukraine. Every single one of those sessions
has sent a straight-forward, unified message: Russia, stop this
conflict. Russia is not listening.

We said it when Russia flagrantly violated international law in
occupying Crimea. We said it after the shocking downing of
Malaysian Airlines flight 17, which took the lives of innocent
men, women, children, and infants from 11 countries. And we say
it today, as Russia’s soldiers, tanks, air defense, and artillery
support and fight alongside separatists as they open a new front
in a crisis manufactured in and fueled by Russia.

But Russia is not listening.

Instead of listening, instead of heeding the demands of the
international community and the rules of the international order,
at every step, Russia has come before this Council to say
everything except the truth. It has manipulated. It has
obfuscated. It has outright lied. So we have learned to measure
Russia by its actions and not by its words.

In the last 48 hours, Russia’s actions have spoken volumes.

On August 26 – just this
Tuesday – after meeting with Ukrainian President Poroshenko
in Minsk, Belarus, President Putin spoke of the need to quote
“end bloodshed as soon as possible.” End quote. Yet the same day,
satellite imagery show(s) Russian combat units – combat units –
southeast of Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. That same day in
Luhansk, Ukraine detained regular Russian Army personnel from the
9th brigade.

In response, Russia claimed the soldiers had wandered into
Ukrainian territory “by mistake.” This, supposedly, in a time of
conflict along one of the most carefully watched borders in the
world.

The day after those talks,
Russia fired Grad rockets from inside Russia at Ukrainian
positions in Novoazovsk, and then attacked with two columns of
Russian armored vehicles and tanks. Russian armored
vehicles and Uragan multiple rocket launchers are positioned on
the outskirts of that town as we speak.

Russia’s force along the border is the largest it has been since
it began redeploying forces there in late May, and includes
significant numbers of combat aircraft and helicopters. Russian
unmanned aircraft routinely cross into Ukrainian airspace.

Other Russian deployments into Ukrainian territory include
advanced artillery and air defense systems not found in the
Ukrainian inventory. These artillery systems have shelled
Ukrainian positions outside Luhansk City in conjunction with the
recent separatist counteroffensive.

One of the separatist leaders that Russia has armed and backed
said openly that three or four thousand Russian soldiers have
joined their cause. He was quick to clarify that these soldiers
were on vacation. But a Russian soldier who chooses to fight in
Ukraine on his summer break is still a Russian soldier. And the
armored Russian military vehicle he drives there is not his
personal car.

Meanwhile, in Russia, family members of Russian soldiers are
holding funerals for their loved ones who have been killed in the
fighting in Ukraine. They’re demanding answers for how they were
killed. Journalists who try to cover these funerals are harassed
and threatened by armed men. Yet, still, according to the Russian
government, the soldiers were never there. They were never in
Crimea either, until Russia announced that those soldiers who
were never there had annexed Crimea.

The last 48 hours fit into a well-established pattern for Russia.
Each step has paved the way for the one that followed. And yet in
spite of all of these outrageous actions, Ukraine has repeatedly
sought a political solution to this crisis. It has repeatedly
sought a path to de-escalation. Despite this pattern, President
Poroshenko showed up in Minsk to meet with President Putin. In
contrast, President Putin was still unwilling to acknowledge the
most basic facts we all know: that Russia has armed, equipped,
and now joined illegal separatists fighting in Ukraine. Serious
negotiations are needed, urgently needed. But Russia has to stop
lying and has to stop fueling this conflict.

The mask is coming off. In these acts – these recent acts – we
see Russia’s actions for what they are: a deliberate effort to
support, and now fight alongside, illegal separatists in another
sovereign country.

Now, Russia has claimed that Ukraine is not interested in a
ceasefire, but let’s be clear: we have every interest in a
ceasefire, as do the Ukrainians, as long as it is a real one. But
Russian separatists not only have no interest in observing a
ceasefire, but they cynically use the time to rearm and wait for
additional soldiers and supplies to flow across the border from
Russia.

In the face of these deeply alarming actions, the most important
question for us now is not what we should say to Russia. The most
important question is what we should do to make Russia listen.

The United States has, throughout this crisis, and in close
coordination with our European partners, the EU and the G7,
exerted targeted, effective pressure so that this message is
heard, so that Russia begins to de-escalate, rather than
escalate, so that the reasonable peace plan put forward by
President Poroshenko is adopted and implemented. And in the face
of Russia’s continued aggression and blatant disregard for the UN
Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, we will continue to work closely
with our G7 and European partners to ratchet up the consequences
on Russia.

Now, I understand that there are real costs felt by citizens of
countries when their governments take these actions. It has costs
for businesses that trade with Russia and sell to Russian
markets, from small-scale farmers to big factories. Those costs
are considerable, and nobody should take them lightly.

But let’s be clear: if
unchecked, the damage that Russia’s blatant disregard for the
international order poses is much, much greater. These rules and
principles that have taken generations to build, with
unparalleled investment – countless lives have been lost to
establish and defend these principles. And every single one of us
has a stake in defending them. A threat to the order – the
international order – is a threat to all of our peace and
security.

These are the rules that Russia is flouting when it illegally
seizes territory and arms, equips, and fights alongside illegal
groups in neighboring countries.

Ukraine is one of roughly a dozen countries that share a border
with Russia. Let me close with a couple questions: How can we
tell those countries that border Russia that their peace and
sovereignty is guaranteed if we do not make our message heard on
Ukraine? Why should they believe it will be different
if tomorrow, President Putin decides to start supporting
armed separatists and allowing soldiers “on vacation” to fight in
their countries? And, just as important, what message are we
sending to other countries with similarly alarming ambitions
around the world, when we let Russia violate these rules without
sufficient consequences? In the face of this threat, the
cost of inaction is unacceptable.